Tuesday, June 2, 2015

A quick thought about a couple of extra knots...

Tad Roberts has a new design in the works which, I expect, I'll be telling you a lot more about in the next week or so, but for the moment, I'd just like to point out something important about it and boats in general...

Speed: 6.5 knots with 15HP outboard, 9 knots with 40HP

A little extra speed's expensive, isn't it?

Not only is the cost of a 40HP outboard a lot more expensive than a 15HP outboard, it's going to use a whole lot more fuel in the process and its upkeep will be costlier as well.

Of course, everyone wants to go just that little bit faster... Don't they?

Offhand, it seems to me when the gain seems meager compared to the cost of attaining it, you might want to take a long hard look at your priorities.

1 comment:

The extra horsepower isn't just about speed, but about being able to push through head seas and keep yourself off of lee shores. Initial cost aside, a 40hp engine doesn't use much more (and in certain situations, less) fuel to push a boat at the same speed as does an engine of 15hp, but can do a lot more when asked.